Party time! (Winter fun list update)

I'm just a *ahem* little late in writing this up, but this is the first chance I've had to actually sit when I had a good internet connection at the same time this week. Looking back at the blog, I realize now that I never posted last week for the bucket list, and haven't shared at ALL since the 3rd!! Oops! Guess we've been pretty busy around here. I'll have to share more later :)

Saturday, our friends from Learning Life with 3 Sons (who is also hosting the link-up for the winter bucket lists!) for a small "party" and helped us knock that off our list. I think we had a good time, I know my boys definitely enjoyed having some other boys to play with - Jason included ;) We had pizza bagels, and pb&j snowmen sandwiches for lunch, with lots of fun foods too. Buckeyes, chocolate chip cookies, popcorn (in snowmen cups), Olympic torches (cheese curls in ice cream cones), cheese/grape snowmen, powdered donut "snowballs", fresh whip cream, homemade marshmallows, organic candy canes, mini chocolate chips, pirouette wafers, and hot chocolate. The marshmallows were, um, different, as Julie so kindly described. I would say they were not so good in the finished product. At least 2 of the boys liked them - E and Julie's oldest son did - and they melted great and tasted fine in the hot chocolate, but plain, they were not really great.

We all went outside and played for an hour or so - less than that for Jackson and I, but he refused to nap. He wanted to go play in the snow. In fact, at one point while trying to settle him down, he laid on the floor pouting, and I asked if he was ok. "No, I not ok. I go outside and play with snow now, mommy?" Too sweet to say no to him. The others were alternating between roughhousing, a snowball fight and football, from what I could tell.

At some point during the afternoon, the boys played in the basement, and also played some "snowman slam".

We didn't play the one other game I thought they might like, but the video games got turned on for a bit with Julie's oldest and Jason playing a vs. game on the PS2 and the others watching them.

So we managed to mark the following off our list this week:

• Have a party with friends
• Make homemade marshmallows and drink hot cocoa
• Make buckeyes
• Bake cookies and take some to neighbors - this one was half done, we didn't take any to neighbors. However, Jason did take cookies and buckeyes to work today, so I'm counting that as the other half.

We've made some progress on the following:

• Find and read a new book series to read - We've read the first two chapters and part of the 3rd in Anne of Green Gables.
• Library Event - changing this slightly to a library activity, as in the winter reading club. It's a bingo board for the younger two and for the teen/middle school group, they keep track of each book they read. Both groups have an opportunity to win prizes. Since we are already upping our reading around here, this coincides with our personal goals for the year.

This weekend is open with no swim lesson or catechism, and the boys and Jason don't have school Monday, so I have great hopes to knock some "big" stuff off of our list!

This last week has been, wow, just a little off! Last Sunday was Alex's First Holy Communion, which I already shared about. We had his party in our basement and backyard. After Sunday night, I didn't set foot back down there till Wednesday afternoon.

Alex actually went down to play after school that day, and came running back up to say there was tons of water all over the basement. I expected to go down and see some water backing up out of the drain or something. Oh, no, not even close. There was almost 2 inches of water throughout the entire 1900 sq ft basement! The sump pump went out - the outlet tripped. We got it started and called the insurance. Thankfully, we have water backup coverage, so they sent a cleanup crew Thursday morning. After a couple more mishaps - missed calls and messages, more equipment, sump being unplugged accidentally and additional flooding - the basement is almost completely dry and hopefully only needs a little fixing up. I'm truly grateful we had never put carpet down there.

Friday: Jack and I went grocery shopping, dealt with the cleanup crew for the 2nd time and the insurance claims adjustor and we had Julie's oldest son spend the night. Jason, E, Alex and Jordan all played outside and had a small fire in the BBQ pit. They also shot Alex's bow and arrow and broke a window on the shed! Silly boys. I also had a very important phone call to take care of for my new adventure. More on that soon, hopefully.

Julie and the rest of the boys came over first thing Saturday morning and while we finished up breakfast, poor Jordan shot an arrow at the ground and it bounced up and hurt his eye! Not too badly, thank goodness. Julie and I took the 7 boys to the Detroit Institute of Arts and walked around for a few hours. There were some very interesting pieces of artwork and historical/archaeological pieces too! I think the boys really enjoyed themselves as well as learned something new.

Sunday morning came too early and we didn't make it to Mass, even though we all wanted and planned to. :( I had 4 loads of laundry to do and had to spread it all out day, so I wouldn't trip the circuit breaker. E, Jack and I went to Costco while Alex and Jas worked on his diorama.

Today has proven to be a smooth day and I'm hoping the rest of the week is the same!

Normal.

What is normal? Or maybe, rather, who is normal? Not I! I don't fit neatly into any box. I am not just this, or just that. I try to get along with people. I like people who talk to me like their equal and not lesser than. If you treat my kids the way I would, with respect and authority all in one, I trust you with them and want you and your kids around. If we think along the same lines, in one way or many, if you get my husband's goofy jokes and sarcasm, if you understand my kids' differences and don't think anything of it, you are my kind of people.

I have a hard time relating to people, or maybe it's just that I don't always open up to others? I don't know. It takes me a while to make a new friend. But finally, after 3+ years of living in MI and my oldest son being halfway through his 4th year at his new school, I can say I truly have someone I consider a good friend! It's nice to get along with somebody, that lives nearby and has kids that are similar ages and get along with my boys. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE my boys' teachers but because they are their teachers, it's probably crossing some invisible line to call them "friend" (even though, I truly classify at least one a friend and 2 others as acquaintances!). But another mom that Jason and I feel comfortable around, can have over for dinner, sit and talk to and totally lose track of time in the process, that is a rare thing indeed. (I've only ever found that with a few other people in my lifetime - Sharon, Jill and Darla are three of them and they are all still amazing friends!!!)

So thanks again, Julie, for hanging out with my goofy family last night and bringing your boys over to this madhouse!